Brazin hits a high note

IAN DUFFELL has been Sir Richard Branson's competitor and partner at various points in his career as a retail executive - now he is both at the same time.

The British-born executive's new company, Australian retailer Brazin, recently said it would buy Branson's loss-making Our Price chain for £2. But while Our Price - soon to be Sanity Music - will continue to distribute Virgin Mobile phone services, Duffell wants Sanity to displace Virgin and become the number two-ranked music retailer in Britain. If it achieved this, it would be accomplished with Virgin help as Branson's group will commit £7.7m to refurbish the chain and lend Brazin £2.2m.

'I think there's a real opportunity because there's been nothing new in the UK for more than 20 years,' said Duffell. 'Customers like something new. The stores will have a street edge, a young and vibrant atmosphere - the UK is going to get the latest evolution of our store concept.'

The Our Price deal marks something of a business homecoming for Duffell. In the 1980s, he was Virgin's main rival as managing director of HMV in the UK. From there, he joined Virgin and began a 12-year career with the group which culminated in a senior appointment in the US.

He was recruited by Brazin and moved five months ago to Australia where Sanity Music has come from nowhere to claim 25% market share and the top music retailer within eight years. The Australian side of the Our Price deal shows the fruits of Duffell's business and personal relationship with Branson, and helps balance out the conflict of interest in the UK. Brazin will rename 55 of its Australian stores - IN2 Music - with the Virgin name, marking the brand's return after selling its megastores to US company Blockbuster five years ago.

For this, Brazin will pay Virgin 1% of turnover and give it Brazin share options currently worth around A$2.2m(£766,000). 'In cutting the deal, the relationship with Richard helped, particularly when it came to granting the licence here in Australia,' said Duffell. 'But I can see it's a double-edged situation for Virgin in the UK. They didn't want to sell Our Price to a competitor, but the other side of the coin was that by selling to us he kept his Virgin Mobile distribution through the 77 stores, and that was fairly critical.'

The Our Price deal is Duffell's first major move as Brazin's chief, and comes after the company's disastrous local start-ups in a coffee shop chain and a rave party events venture. His view is that Brazin should stick with what it knows - music retailing - and that, as further growth would be hard to come by in Australia, it should look to do the same thing offshore.

'We have a big opportunity to make a lot of things right with Our Price,' said Duffell. 'The fit out will make a difference, rebranding will make a difference and so will the right staff and the right stock. The UK music market is one of the few in the world that is showing some growth, so it's great to be back there with an opportunity like this.'